The NATO Military Committee closed its Copenhagen meeting yesterday by electing German military chief Gen. Carsten Breuer as its next chairman, to take office next summer.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico responded by accusing some Western politicians of seeking a NATO-Russia conflict after a “failed” strategy to defeat Moscow through Ukraine. “The failure of the strategy to destroy Russia through the war in Ukraine has led some Western politicians to believe that if the goal cannot be achieved through the Ukrainian army and full support for it, then every effort must be made to trigger a conflict between NATO and Russia,” he said in a video message reported by Reuters. “We face a mortal danger.” The war, he said, is neither Slovakia’s nor NATO’s, but “certain war hawks within NATO are trying, at any cost, to turn this war into a conflict between Russia and NATO.”